Hand, foot & mouth disease is a common disease of infants and young children so named because of the characteristic spots seen in the mouth and on the soles and palms of the affected person. Adults are rarely affected by this virus but this is one of those rare cases. . .
Maria, a 30 year old female and mother of a 9-month old baby girl called me after her primary care doctor diagnosed her with hand, foot and mouth disease and then told her to go home, take some Tylenol, get some rest and drink plenty of fluids. She followed the doctors orders and 2 weeks later she was still suffering from a 102 degree fever that refused to go away even with constant use of Tylenol!
Strangely enough Maria’s young daughter, besides having a mild fever for two days, never exhibited any other signs of the disease but it is likely that is where Maria contracted the virus. She had the characteristic spots on her soles, palms and the inside of her mouth but by the time I spoke with her they had disappeared. She had a fever of 102 degrees that was worse in the evening, at night in bed and in the morning but dropped down to nearly normal during the day. She was extremely fatigued and achy all over. The achy-ness made her restless but movement only increased the pain. She was mildly irritable which she attributed to not sleeping well and simply wanted to be left alone. The nighttime fever also made her restless but again any movement made her feel worse. Her body felt intensely hot but with very little perspiration and her mouth was so dry that she was dreaming about drinking water! She was extremely thirsty all the time but no amount of water seemed to quench her thirst.
Many of Maria’s symptoms were common to many viral illnesses – fatigue, fever, aching muscles – but it was the unique symptoms – tidal fever that seemed to go up and down with the sun, extreme heat with very little perspiration, desire to remain still and the extremely dry mouth and increased thirst – that ultimately lead me to prescribe Bryonia alba for this unusual case of hand, foot and mouth disease. Maria did not have a homeopathic kit at home so she had a family member stop by the health food store and pick up the only Bryonia they had which happened to be a 6C potency.
Maria took the remedy when she got home from work, just as her fever was starting to rise and within 5 minutes of putting the small, white pellets under tongue her fever began to go down. She slept through the night for the first time in weeks and called me the next morning exclaiming, “the remedy worked faster than Tylenol!” Because the remedy was a relatively low potency I told her to take another dose if her symptoms returned. After only 4 doses and less than 48 hours her fever was completely gone, she was sleeping peacefully through the night, her body no longer hurt and her energy was almost back to normal. Her only complaint was that she wished she would have called me sooner!
